1sentence: A Magical Melodies Collection
by Rhianwen
Summary: Every romance starts somewhere, but no two begin or end up in exactly the same place. A series of pieces for the 1sentence livejournal community, each one exploring a different couple's relationship. Chapter 8: Jamie and Farmergirl!
1. Blue and Ellen, epsilon theme

A Place For Only Them

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Disclaimer: I don't own them, and they would probably be horrified.

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Warning: Yes, Blue and Ellen are cousins. I suppose that means this contains incest of some form. If that is not your cup o' tea, please proceed to the next chapter (once it exists) or utilize the back-button in a calm and reasonable manner.

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#01 – Motion 

Blue has always heard that if you're feeling motion-sick, you should look at a spot on the horizon, and he knows first-hand that it works, because he had his attention too firmly fixed on big laughing brown eyes and short silky brown hair and a sweet smile for everyone, and by the time he realized he was falling, it was too late to stop it.

#02 – Cool

Once she's sure everyone is out of the house for tonight, Ellen curls up on her pretty heart-patterned quilt and spends a miserable hour sniffling into her pillows, because Blue has _never_ been so cold and angry with her, and she doesn't even know what she did.

#03 – Young

"Do you remember when we used to play fairytale as kids?" she asks whimsically over lunch one day, and he nods, choking slightly, because it's hard to forget the climax of all fairytales, when the prince broke the princess's curse with a kiss.

#04 – Last

He can never _quite_ bring himself to be sorry that they were born cousins, because if she was just another girl he'd dated, he'd probably hate her by now, or worse, be totally indifferent to her, even though he can't imagine _not_ almost melting under the beaming warmth of that smile.

#05 – Wrong

"'Course it's not wrong to love the people you're related to, Pumpkin," Hank chuckles, ruffling his daughter's hair, and Ellen sighs, because Papa doesn't understand what she's asking, and her courage has given out before she can _make_ him understand.

#06 – Gentle

In retrospect, she doesn't know why it surprised her, when he bandaged her sprained wrist as gently as that pretty Gina girl over at the clinic could have, because she's seen him with the animals, and used to think wistfully how nice it would be to have been born a pretty little brown colt for him to brush and cuddle and talk to.

#07 – One

It was just one kiss, stolen in the barn with only the sheep and cows and horses as witness, fleeting and awkward and altogether perfect.

#08 – Thousand

But now that they've done it once and the sky didn't fall down on them, they can't keep from doing it again and again, sneaking kisses when they're alone like children sneaking candy.

#09 – King

The _Prince_ and the _Princess_ have come to terms with a too-close familial relationship, because they aren't hurting anyone by _kissing_, but both suspect that the _King_ might not be so happy with this turn of events, so it becomes an unspoken agreement that they don't let Hank find out.

#10 – Learn

He taught her to ride a horse when she was eight, so of course she could ride on her own; but it's so much _nicer_ to hop up behind him on Cliffguard when they go on those all-too-rare rides in the mountains.

#11 – Blur

He never suspected that she knew how to swim, until he watched in amazement as that little shape, clad only in transparent wet cotton, rippled, regrettably blurred, through the water.

#12 – Wait

Uncle Hank is over at Duke's for a drink, and Blue knows not to expect him for several hours yet; nevertheless, something keeps him firmly away from Ellen's room, because even though it's the perfect opportunity, the _perfect opportunity_ at the _wrong time _might ruin everything.

#13 – Change

Ever since that new candy store opened up in Flower Bud, Ellen's change from her little purchases at the Cafe mysteriously disappears before she can get home, and every Thursday, Blue finds a little brown paper bag of his favourite tiny licorice-flavoured jaw-breakers.

#14 – Command

When she asks him about her Papa's efforts of late to set him up with her friend Ann at the junk shop, she expects his terse order to _drop it_, but he doesn't entirely expect her calm, quiet refusal.

#15 – Hold

When he places a call to the bank and promptly gets put on hold, he sighs and grumbles in irritation, until she scurries over and hits the speakerphone button and then dances around the kitchen to the bank's hold music until they're both laughing and the banker on the other end wonders what he's missed.

#16 – Need

He strongly suspects that for her, this is just some grade-school game, boyfriend-girlfriend, I-like-you, I-like-you-too, and he's afriad that if she knew that she was right up there with his vital needs – air, water, Ellen – it would scare the hell out of her.

#17 – Vision

But then, Blue has the tendency to keep his head down, look at things from among them, focus on the day-to-day details, like a sweet, cheerful, giggling girl, and completely miss the gradual overreaching changes, like a sweet, cheerful, giggling girl who loves him more and more devotedly each day.

#18 – Attention

Blue's tendency for self-denial has always made her shake her head a bit, but now that it's resulting in him determinedly ignoring her for days on end – it's already been _three days_ since he last kissed her – Ellen decides that something must be done.

#19 – Soul

"Do you think we'll still be best friends like this in Heaven?" Ellen asks whimsially, snuggling into his arm as they stretch out on the grass _stargazing_, and even though he doesn't have the first clue, he nods because he can't imagine it being Heaven if they have to give up what they love most.

#20 – Picture

She hates having her picture taken, but nonetheless smiles brightly when that nice Louis poses her carefully and prettily by the hollyhocks and calls out a cheery _say cheese_, because Blue said that this is all he really wants from her for his birthday.

#21 – Fool

"I wasn't trying to trick Papa, you know," Ellen tells a disapproving Blue very seriously; "He asked if there was someone I liked, and I said yes, and he assumed all by himself that it was Carl."

#22 – Mad

"You can shout at me if you really have to; you're pretty when you're mad," he tells her with an adoring smile, running one finger lightly down her cheek, flushed with anger.

#23 – Child

That little girl from the Paradise Orchards who came over asking timidly if she could see the horses has been here all morning, and Blue is torn between the urge to put as much distance between himself and the kid as possible because he's just _not good _with them, and the urge to go join them as Ellen's sparkling laugh drifts back towards the barn.

#24 – Now

This is the best kind of night, when Papa finds everything he wants in front of his own fireplace and doesn't need to go traipsing off to the Moonlight Cafe, and Blue pulls her even closer when she snuggles up next to him on the rug, and they all talk and laugh together, and she thinks she just might burst of the happiness of this moment.

#25 – Shadow

He hates himself for doing it, but not enough that he doesn't keep carefully a few paces behind Ellen and that pretty, curly-haired boy who runs the cafe south of the Junk Shop, as they stroll through the village, chattering easily and happily.

#26 – Goodbye

And as it happens, he's not the only one who does things he hates himself for, as just a week later sees Ellen peeking furtively through the curtains of Papa's room as Blue says good-night to Ann on the front step, at the same time outraged that he hasn't offered to walk the poor girl home.

#27 – Hide

"Ellen...that's not a good idea," he groans as her breath and lips warm at his ear sends a rush of heat through him, straight to the source of his discomfort, pressing tight and hard against her thigh, impossible to hide.

#28 – Fortune

Both of them are solemnly aware of just how lucky they were that Hank chose tonight to forget his keys at the Moonlight Cafe, not to mention the fact that he doesn't even take his keys because no one in Flower Bud locks their doors, because that would have been a hell of a thing for him to walk in on, his daughter and his nephew tangled together in Blue's bed, their clothes tangled into a big ball on the floor.

#29 – Safe

He knows that Ellen feels safest around him, but sometimes he wonders if she really should.

#30 – Ghost

Ellen stopped being afraid of ghosts after the first time Papa took her to the Firefly Festival, when she was six, but Blue still isn't too anxious to meet some resident of Flower Bud from centuries past.

#31 – Book

Generally, she's not much of a reader, but the book he brought her back from town becaue he thought she might like it is special, and for two days, she barely puts it down.

#32 – Eye

She asks him imploringly to leave the hat off tonight, now that the sun's gone down and it's not so hot, because she can't see his eyes very well when he has it on.

#33 – Never

"Don't try that again," he orders sharply, grumpy and harsh in sheer relief to find her safe, if bruised and disoriented, after her failed attempt to jump over the fence on Cliffguard, only to be thrown over the fence minus the horse when the animal stopped short in a panic.

#34 – Sing

She stares at him for a bewildered moment, but finally complies and starts the old, simple little song her mother taught her in a sweet, clear voice that few people ever heard because she's not much for _performing_.

#35 – Sudden

They've gotten into the habit of just sort of walking into one another's rooms unannounced when Papa isn't home, so Blue has no time to throw on some clothes before Ellen bursts through the door, already chattering away.

#36 – Stop

When Ellen calls him in for lunch, he drops everything immediately and hurries into the farmhouse kitchen, even though they both know that Uncle Hank takes forever to wash up, because it's nice to spend extra little bits of time together like this.

#37 – Time

But no matter how much time they spend together, it always feels like it's not enough, and when he tells Ellen that, she blushes and snuggles against his shoulder, and then tells him wisely that it's because they're in love; for his part, Blue is hard-pressed to disagree.

#38 – Wash

"Well, why don't I go run and fetch Gina or the doctor, and_they_ can tell you that you'll get sick from wearing those sweaty, filthy things every day for a month without washing them, if you don't believe me?" Ellen suggested, arms crossed and jaw set so that Blue knew he had been beaten and reluctantly moved to peel off his favourite pair of jeans.

#39 – Torn

Since she's become such good friends with that farmer, Keltie, down at Ladybug Farm, Ellen finds herself quite conflicted as to who to cheer for during the horse races.

#40 – History

The fight is a bad one, with each party involved bringing up every stupid or inconsiderate thing the other has ever done – and when they've known each other all their lives, that only makes it worse.

#41 – Power

"Damn it," Blue mutters, rubbing his sore cheek as Ellen stomps upstairs, surreptitiously rubbing her sore hand; "I keep forgetting, she's stronger than she looks."

#42 – Bother

After being avoided and evaded all morning by a young lady whose singing and giggles seem far too forced, he corners her in the supply shed and keeps her there until she agrees to tell him what's bothering her.

#43 – God

"It's just...I love you so much, and I can't imagine having a family with anyone else, but Maria told me that babies from parents that are too closely related can have...well, defects, and the evolutionary disadvantage made it a social taboo," she admits, playing absently with his hair heedless of half a day's worth of sweat and grime; "But you don't think God would want to hurt an innocent baby just because its parents fell in love with the wrong person, do you?"

#44 – Wall

"Listen: you knew we'd have to do it sometime if we ever wanted to get marrie," he tells her sternly when she protests frantically at the idea of leaving Flower Bud; "We can't keep this a secret forever, and something like this could put huge walls between us and the rest of the village."

#45 – Naked

Maybe it's because of the undiluted terror in his daughter's eyes when she tells him, steadily and unwaveringly, her intentions of running off to marry Blue, but Hank merely smiles sadly, pulls her into a bone-crunching hug, and tells them that he'll miss them, both for their help around here and having family nearby.

#46 – Drive

It's not the nicest drive they've ever had together, still in their wedding clothes on the hottest day fo the summer, and suffering strained nerves from the planning and the goodbyes under less than perfect circumstances; yet when they stop for lunch at a little cafe on the way to the new farm, the waitress squeals over the _happy little newlyweds_, and declares that she could see them glowing as soon as they hopped out of the truck.

#47 – Harm

From the moment she tells him that day in autumn, haltingly and nervously, the hopes she has for next spring, he becomes nearly _too_ protective, wrapping an arm tightly around her whenever she so much as steps outside, because _a woman's got to be careful when there's a baby on the way._

#48 – Precious

The first time he looks down at the tiny creature snuggled into his arms, Ellen smiling adoringly and exhaustedly from the bed, wispy short brown hair damp with sweat and sticking to her forehead, the need to protect with his life all that's precious in it is nearly overwhelming.

#49 – Hunger

Until a tiny little hand starts pawing at his chest, and he passes off a wailing little Marcy back to Ellen, because he hasn't got much there to help feed the poor kid.

#50 – Believe

Despite their secret gnawing worries amid the _everything else _to do establishing the farm and building friendships and running around after a mischeivous toddler, their daughter grows up as strong and healthy as her parents, and by the time they see a happily skipping little brunette off to her first day of kindergarten, they begin, tentatively, to believe that Marcy won't be punished for a perceived sin on the part of her parents.

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End Notes: Well, that's that. I hope it wasn't too heinous, but this was my first try with the characters. Next up, Gina/Alex, because Gina gets too damn much bashing, and it's starting to piss me off. I think everyone who thinks it would be OMG SO SEXY for Alex to cheat on her with Dia should be shackled to the floor and forced to watch their significant other have amazing sex with a movie star, all the while screaming out, "Oh, this is the best I've ever had! Oh, my boyfriend/girlfriend just can't compare!" Yaay! 


	2. Alex and Gina, gamma theme

Alex/Gina - Gamma theme set

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#01 – Ring 

The original arrangement, with her coming in half-days and mostly to tidy up and answer the phone while he was with a patient, didn't last long once she proved herself calm, level-headed, attentive and sensitive to the patient's needs, and as competent with the creation and administering of medicine as her _boss_.

#02 – Hero

Of course Jack was just like a fairytale hero, she agreed solemnly when he asked, a little tense, what she thought of him; but fairytale heroes were only for helpless princesses, and she preferred someone who _needed_ her.

#03 – Memory

She has a hard time figuring out how a man who could barely remember to put on his pants half the time could possibly remember not only her birthday, but the beautiful gold ring set with coral and tiny golden pearls she had admired at Lyla's gift shop, but, as she shows him with an uncharacteristically ecstatic hug, she's very grateful that he did.

#04 – Box

When he finds out from an off-handed comment of Dia's that Gina has been too busy at the Clinic to finish unpacking all their boxes, he makes a point to pay his nurse a visit that evening and help her finish the job, because he knows that his suggestion that Dia could help her with it fell on deaf ears.

#05 – Run

She lost track of time on her walk in the mountains to gather the herbs he needed, so she had to run to make up for it; he peeked out the window when half an hour came with still no Gina, and stared, amazed, as a little blue-haired shape sprinted toward the Clinic, her skirt held up around her waist.

#06 – Hurricane

"Well, you can't leave _now_," he told her, kindly exasperated, hurrying to fetch her a towel, when she reeled through the door, dripping wet from the violent summer storm she'd braved because she had promised to finish up a task from yesterday that had taken longer than she'd expected.

#07 – Wings

She's been such an angel about long hours and increased workload through the flu season, tending unrestingly to others even through her own bout of fever and chills, that he's amazed she doesn't actually have a pair of pristinely white feathered wings.

#08 – Cold

When she can't find a sweater to stave off the shivers he's been wracked with for most of the afternoon, she hesitates briefly, then wraps her arms around him from behind, rubbing vigorously to warm him up.

#09 – Red

And when Martha returns to find them with their arms around each other, snuggling contentedly, she blushes sweetly pink as he turns bright red and finds that suddenly, he's not so cold anymore.

#10 – Drink

She keeps it very carefully a secret from him that she doesn't generally approve of excessive drink, but does enjoy a grape soda every now and again, because she's certain he wouldn't approve.

#11 – Midnight

When she notices the lights in the Clinic still burning in the middle of the night, she throws on a robe and slippers and hurries over to tell him very firmly that that's enough for one night.

#12 – Temptation

But of course, he's very stubborn when he wants to be, and before long she ends up joining him, because at least they'll be done before morning; when she throws off her robe absently and he stares, mesmerized, at subtle curves through thin white cotton, he doesn't even try to resist the urge to trail his hands gently over smooth pale skin and make her gasp softly as his lips catch one dark rosy velvetsoft nipple

#13 – View

The next morning, he awakes to the thought that he could get used to this sight, her lips curved up in a peaceful smile, silken blue spilling over her bare shoulders; and when she wakes up to find him smiling gently down at her, she feels like they've been this way all their lives.

#14 – Music

"She's very good, isn't she?" Gina notes aloud as the sound Dia's violin drifts down from the top floor of the Sanitorium; Alex nods and smiles before catching her around the waist and pulling her into a dance.

#15 – Silk

"It used to be Dia's; she said the colour was better on me," she admits blushingly, twirling in place just to hear the beautiful pale rose-pink skirts rustle again, and then asks how he likes it, even though his smile and the intent look in his eyes and the feel of his hands tracing her waist and hips beneath the lacy white corset top tell her quite clearly.

#16 – Cover

By the end of the Festival, she's shivering in the chill night air, so he settles his coat gently around her shoulders, and pulls her into his arms, just to be very sure she's warm.

#17 – Promise

When he hears the Mayor ask if they'll promise to love, protect, and honour, and then hears the girl's soft acceptance behind a layer of misty tulle veil, he can feel his heart swelling with happiness.

#18 – Dream

It's going to take her a while, before waking up next to him each morning and listening to his soft breathing as he falls asleep each night, and cuddling him just a wee bit when she wakes up at two in the morning doesn't all seem like just a beautiful dream.

#19 – Candle

When she exclaims in delight over the box of pretty aromatherapy candles, and then takes two of the lavender-scented ones upstairs to have a bubblebath by candlelight, he wonders, watching her purr delightedly as warm water and frothy bubbles cling to her body, gleaming wet in the low light, if this was a present for her, or for him.

#20 – Talent

He never would have imagined she'd have such a gift for artistry, he thinks, flipping admiringly through the little sketch-pad he found on the dresser.

#21 – Silence

When Martha asks her newly-acquired roommate, since her move into the Sanitorium, after all, how she's enjoying the notion that her best friend is a _married woman_ now, Dia ponders this for a few silent moments, and then responds with startling venom, that Gina had no right to leave her for some _man_.

#22 – Journey

It was a few months before they managed to make time for their wedding trip, and of course Prague was beautiful, but they both agreed that the nicest part was coming home.

#23 – Fire

"Dear, would you like me to do that for you?" she asks anxiously as another spark shoots out of the frying pan and burns a tiny hole in his sleeve.

#24 – Strength

Despite two years of knowing her, and three seasons married, this girl will probably always surprise him; for instance, by effortlessly lifting and carrying a box of supplies he spent fifteen minutes trying to budge.

#25 – Mask

"Y-yes, but I'm not really much for cosmetics," Gina admits when Eve stops by for some cough drops for her grandfather, and pulls out a tube of pale pink lipstick – _too_ pale for her taste, but just _perfect_ for the nurse's delicately fair skin and shimmery hair.

#26 – Ice

"You're lucky Jack was up riding in the mountains today," Alex tells her, borderline stern, as he settles an ice pack over her ankle, sprained on an herb-gathering expedition and badly swollen; "Please be more careful next time, Dearest."

#27 – Fall

Her favourite season used to beFall, because of the changing leaves and the crisp, cool air, but she thinks it might be Spring now, because that's when his birthday is, so it's sort of as though the Spring gave him to her.

#28 – Forgotten

Even nurses need their routine check-ups, he told her cheerfully one morning, and set about examining her body in a very different manner than he had just got finished doing two hours ago when it was time to get up for work; as he notices something, a little tidbit of information that she's been waiting for the _perfect moment _to tell him, about their family expanding by one some time in the fairly near future, the rest of the check-up becomes ingnominously forgotten, and Martha, once again, walks in to find the two little newlyweds tangled snugly together.

#29 – Dance

"It really isn't as difficult as it looks," he assures her, before pulling her out into the middle of the floor and taking her through the steps of thefox-trot.

#30 – Body

It seems that, even with her body swelling with pregnancy, he wants her more and more each day, and sometimes he can hardly wait for nightfall to touch her, run one hand down over the curve of her lower back, pull her back against him and press both palms to her stomach, tongue flicking gently at the back of her ear as she moans softly in his arms.

#31 – Sacred

"I like it; I think there's a certain beauty in ceremony," she replies whimsically when he asks what she might think of taking their daughter – for they're both certain that the child will be a girl – down to the stream and christening her.

#32 – Farewells

She knows that lots of the girls in town like him, and even though ost of them like her too, a few certainly don't, because they think _an ugly little four-eyed troll like her isn't good enough for him_, and that's why, though she would trust him with her life, she feels a cold little chill at the thought of saying good-bye, even for a short trip into the city with Dia.

#33 – World

They don't travel much, because Alex had enough travelling in his youth before returning to Flowerbud to begin his practice, and Gina has no particularly fond memories of her travels with Dia and her family.

#34 – Formal

Martha laughs a little whenever she hears Gina calling Alex _Doctor_ during the day, and laughs even more whenever Gina explains very seriously that she feels it's important to draw some very clear lines between their roles as husband and wife, and their roles as employer and employee.

#35 – Fever

This week has been quite a disaster, with the doctor, Martha, and Dia all coming down with the same fever at once; and by the time she had finished making them all comfortable enough to get better, Gina found herself feeling chilled and achy.

#36 – Laugh

He thinks her laugh is very beautiful, low and sweet and silvery; she thinks his smile is very beautiful, warm and inviting and kind.

#37 – Lies

He can tell it's a lie right away, when she assures him that nothing's wrong, because something about Dia's visit must have made her look pale and drawn and despondent, and when he finds out from Martha that it's because the frail dark-haired girl told her snidely that he only married her because he thought she was ugly, and would be too grateful that someone actually _had_ to try to stop him from having other lovers, he thinks it might take him a very long time before he'll knowingly leave Gina alone with her again.

#38 – Forever

"Please tell me you didn't _believe_ it," he murmurs against her hair as her tears soak into his shirt at the thought of losing him to someone prettier; "You know that you're beautiful to me, the most beautiful woman in the world, and that won't change; that's a promise."

#39 – Overwhelmed

They gaze together down at the tiny baby girl snuggled into Gina's arms, completely floored by the strength of their love for each other and for little Siobhan, with her big amber-brown eyes and little fuzz of downy-soft dark hair all over her head.

#40 – Whisper

When he finds her leaning reverently over their little daughter's cradle, singing a sweet old lullaby in barely more than a whisper, he leans against the doorframe, smiling gently at her beauty in the moonlight that reminds him so much of her, pale and ethereal and soothing.

#41 – Wait

When she gets a glimpse of him stepping out of the bath, it makes it _very_ difficult to be patient until he slips into bed next to her.

#42 – Talk

Most of the time, when Siobhan cries at night, he'll get up with her, and after the baby falls peacefully back to sleep, snuggling the soft blue and pink and yellow blankets that line her cradle, they'll talk about everything and nothing until they drop back off to sleep again; they're usually exhausted the next day, but it's worth it.

#43 – Search

Even though they spend an awful lot of time looking for things that he's misplaced because, after all, she doesn't _always_ see him putting them there, she thinks she would be sorry if he _did_ learn to put things back in the right place, because she loves everything about him and doesn't want to lose any of it.

#44 – Hope

She would like to see Siobhan grow up to be a famous violinist, just like her Aunt Dia – because the sweet, cheerful little girl managed to unknowingly mend a rift between lifelong friends – and he harbours secret hopes of seeing their daughter on a woman's volleyball team.

#45 – Eclipse

Over time, her fear of losing him to a prettier girl has been completely overshadowed by her love and trust for a man who would never hurt _anyone_ that way, let alone someone he said again and again that he loved dearly, until even the mocking and scornful glances and words from other women in the village just...don't matter anymore.

#46 – Gravity

Siobhan doesn't know why her Mommy and Daddy smile like that when she announces, very solemnly, that she wants to marry Uncle Kurt and Auntie Dia's little girl, Sylvia, when she grows up, because she always heard that other people didn't like that.

#47 – Highway

"So, where would my two favourite girls like to go on holiday this year?" Alex asks, pulling Gina down onto one knee and lifing Siobhan, now five and tall and lanky for her age, onto the other.

#48 – Unknown

When he brought up the idea of moving to a city because he suspected that both of his special ladies were bored to death in Flowerbud Village, Gina protests almost as frantically as Siobhan, and Alex drops the matter very easily, because he hates the idea of leaping into a new life as much as they do.

#49 – Lock

Whenever she makes a point to lock the door before slipping into bed next to him, he feels his pulse speed up a little bit, even before her hands and lips move soft and achingly sweet over him.

#50 – Breathe

But other nights are just as good, when they snuggle very close, arms around each other, lips barely touching and breath mingling, and drift easily and peacefully to sleep.

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End Notes: O-kay! That's Gina and Alex done! And it was just as much fun as I knew it'd be.

I don't know if the bit about some of the other women in the village being horrible to Gina because they decided that she "wasn't good enough" for Alex was believable or not, but since it is mostly a reflection of how incredibly tired I'm getting of wittle teenybopper asshat authors with no sense of grammar, let alone characterization, bashing her for no reason, I suppose it doesn't matter. But heavens, would I like to see his reaction if he were to see some of these assessments of the woman he loves as an ugly, jealous, possessive bitch! I suspect we would see a sudden and terrifying end to his constant good nature. XD


	3. Carl and Katie, beta theme

Carl/Katie - Beta theme set

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#01 – Walking

This time, she's _sure_ her cake is good – she even left out the bright red herbs to turn it that pretty pink colour, just because he suggested it – so when he takes a cautiously tiny little nibble and then bolts for a glass of water to wash the taste out, she has to go for a long walk to cool down before she can even _think_ of working again.

#02 – Waltz

"Um, Katie," he calls nervously when he finds her waltzing all over the back room with a mop, letting the piping hot desserts get cold while their hungry customers stay hungry, "what are you doing?"

#03 – Wishes

"I wish Ellen was here to try some," Carl sighs wistfully after producing a particularly good strawberry shortcake, and Katie sulks at him, because she just _told_ him it was fantastic, and her opinion should be enough; so, just to spite him, she eats the rest of the cake and spends a miserable night of tummyache wishing she hadn't.

#04 – Wonder

"_Please_ come watch with me," she begs, trying to drag him over to the window to watch a severe summer storm with her; "I promise it won't hurt you in here, and it's really _amazing_ when you stop being afraid of it!"

#05 – Worry

"You think about things too much," Katie informs him gently when his long list of worries and woes has finally trickled to a stop; "Let's go to the Moonlight Cafe and have fun!"

#06 – Whimsy

Both of them are well acquainted with fairytales, so when they see a white rabbit hopping past in a _terrible_ hurry, they both collapse into giggles that make passers by look at them with amused, indulgent, or adoring smiles.

#07 – Waste/Wasteland

Carl tries to make sure that the Callaway Cafe operates on a strict principle of "waste not, want not"; Katie thinks that _this_ is what running your own successful business is _really_ about: being able to throw out a _whole apple_ because it had a rotten spot, instead of trying to save the good and discard only the bad.

#08 - Whiskey and rum

"I bet you're even more of a lightweight than I am," Katie announces airily, which leads to a drinking contest, the results of which remain unknown, with both of them passed out sometime around the bottom of the whiskey bottle and the cracking open of the rum bottle.

#09 – War

She finds it somehow _refreshing_ that Carl isn't obsessed with war and shooting and killing like most other boys his age.

#10 – Weddings

He finds it somehow endearing that she's even _more_ obsessed with weddings and flowers and pretty dresses than most girls his age.

#11 – Birthday

It wasn't until she came downstairs on the morning of her birthday to find a big, prettily wrapped box containing a beautiful baby blue and soft yellow and lacy white frock that he hadn't even had to snoop through her closet to pick out, that she started to think that maybe tall, dark, handsome, and brooding wasn't her taste after all.

#12 – Blessing

Katie's help, he thinks with a long-suffering sigh when he finds a kitchen full of dirty dishes waiting for him because she was _practicing_ today and was too annoyed from failure after failure to bother with clean-up, is sometimes a mixed blessing.

#13 – Bias

"Carl's cakes aren't _that_ great," Katie announces airily in the cozy little kitchen of the Blue Sky Ranch farmhouse as she starts on a second piece of the cocoa cake Ellen made for the little Girl's Night; and Ellen giggles; "I think you're just biased because you're mad at him."

#14 – Burning

He knows she doesn't want to get spots on it at _work_, but he's still glad she's finally wearing the dress, even when he finds himself staring as she prances around the cafe, giggling and blushing at all the compliments, until a cloud of thick black smoke billows up from the oven and no one ever finds out why there was no apple pie that day.

#15 – Breathing

Most girls would be _annoyed _if their one-room-over house mate suddenly started snoring one night, but instead Katie drags him to the Clinic to be interrogated by Alex and Gina and Martha in turn about the trouble he's been having lately, growing dizzy and panicky in addition to the shortness of breath.

#16 – Breaking

"They're only _things_, Katie," he reminds her gently when he comes back in from a run to the Blue Sky Ranch for milk and eggs, to find her sifting tearfully through the fragments of one of his best cup-and-saucer sets.

#17 – Belief

Sometimes, Carl wishes he could be more like Katie and hold stubbornly to whatever he's believing _this_ week, instead of being swayed by every carefully thought out argument he hears.

#18 – Balloon

"If I keep eating like this, I'm going to look like a big balloon by the end of the year," Katie laments, looking down at the remnants of her blueberry tart, and then pinching her waist; and even though Carl thinks Katie probably burns off most of those calories just by being Katie, he makes a point to keep yogurt and apple sauce and plenty of fruit on hand after that.

#19 – Balcony

"Oh, I got it falling off the balcony at Mom and Dad's house," she shrugs casually, glancing absently down at the scar, long since faded, extending over her knee, and he's almost afraid to ask what she was doing.

#20 – Bane

"You know, lots of people have it worse," she reminds him delicately when he laments, yet again, that he was only charged half-price on the ferry.

#21 – Quiet

Carl isn't generally as...well, _noisy_ as Katie, but he still agrees that Kurt and Dia, who are solemn and silent all the time, even when they're together, are a little unnerving.

#22 – Quirks

"Like _you_ don't have your fair share of quirks," Katie huffs when Carl asks timidly why she always skips the last four stairs on the way down in the morning, to land at the bottom with a huge, jarring thud.

#23 – Question

"So, what do you think you're going to say?" Carl asks, suddenly very attentive, when it comes back around to Katie that Joe over at the workshop means to ask her to the Full Moon Festival.

#24 – Quarrel

Carl grew up believing that angry words and slamming doors couldn't be undone without at least a week of healing time apart, so when Katie waltzes back in less than an hour after a bitter quarrel and gives him a big hug and an apple in reconciliation, it takes him some time to get used to the idea.

#25 – Quitting

"I'm sorry, Carl, I know you put a lot of trust in me, but I can't stay here forever," she tells him softly through tears the same day she heard from Joe who heard from Eve who heard from Dan who heard from Thomas that Carl had recently acquired a Blue Feather, because she really doesn't want to stick around to help Carl and Ellen celebrate their wedding.

#26 – Jump

She jumps about a foot in the air when the slam of a door wrenches her attention from packing, because she knows Carl's the only other person in the house right now, and he just _doesn't slam doors_.

#27 – Jester

"Dan doesn't know anything, he's just a goof," Carl interrupts as impatiently as she's ever seen him when she tries to yell at him for not _telling_ her he was proposing to Ellen; "The feather was for...um, someone else."

#28 – Jousting

He always seems to end up in strange places when Katie's nearby, so it's no real surprise when they find themselves in a Medieval Faire banquet hall, watching a jousting tournament on the first evening of their honeymoon in the city; he tells Katie regretfully that he doesn't think he'd be able to do that for his lady's honour, and she just giggles and says that she'll do it for _his_ honour, then.

#29 – Jewel

It's not really the custom around here, but he just didn't feel like they were _married_ until he did it, slipped a beautiful diamond ring onto her finger...and got knocked backwards onto the floor by an ecstatic, squealing Katie-comet.

#30 – Just

"It's not _fair_, to keep me just a waitress when we're married," she huffs; "We should be _business partners_."

#31 – Smirk

"To tell you the truth," he says with a little smile that would be a smirk on anyone else, "I think we already have been for a while now—it's really hard to ignore your invaluable advice."

#32 – Sorrow

"This is why I didn't want a pet," she mutters, sniffling heroically, as they heap the soft earth over the grave of the stray kitten he adopted over the winter; making no attempt to hide his tears, he gives her hand a comforting squeeze.

#33 – Stupidity

"Or maybe it's because he's just _stupid_," Katie snorts, rubbing Carl's shoulders, stiff and aching from an afternoon of serving that Gourmet who ultimately left unimpressed.

#34 – Serenade

He thinks Katie would probably be a pretty good singer, if she didn't only do it when she drank too much.

#35 – Sarcasm

It always amazes people that such an adorable, curly-headed little guy can be so sarcastic; Katie always takes a fiendish delight in their stunned, rather foolish expressions when they realize that they've just been insulted.

#36 – Sordid

"Katie, are you sure that's really the sort of book you should be reading?" he asks timidly, peeking over her shoulder, and when she grins impishly up at him before reading her favourite passages aloud, he begins to think that maybe there's a place in every decent person's life for a little smut.

#37 – Soliloquy

"So, what's a soliloquy, anyway?" Katie asks, grumpily curious, and Carl giggles a little at the fact that she exemplifies the meaning of the word so well in her almost daily rants and stories and ponderings of the love-lives of others, without any idea of its meaning.

#38 – Sojourn

"This was kind of nice for a change, wasn't it?" she decides, and he nods happily as they pack up the remainder of their lunch and clear away their clutter from the beautiful _picnic spot_ they found up in the mountains.

#39 – Share

Ellen watches, giggling silently in delight, when she slips quietly into the Callaway Cafe one afternoon to find the owner and his pretty wife sharing a milkshake through twin twisty-straws.

#40 – Solitary

Neither of them are particularly reliant on _alone-time_ to keep them sane, so it's a little difficult to know when the other is starting to feel the occasional need.

#41 – Nowhere

"Oh; nowhere," she replies innocently when he asks where she's off to at this hour, before scurrying away to Ellen's house for an early-morning cake-baking tutorial, because she's become to realize, reluctantly, that he's right and she probably won't improve if she won't let someone help her.

#42 – Neutral

She tries to keep a blank, indifferent expression when he gives her compliment after lavish compliment on her first _really good _attempt at cheesecake, but that huge grin just came out of nowhere.

#43 – Nuance

He doesn't _tell_ her when things are bothering him, so she eventually picks up the ability to read his moods from the little things.

#44 – Near

He's always heard that you're not supposed to work with your spouse or lover, because time apart is important to every relationship, but he thinks that's silly, because he loves having Katie near him all the time.

#45 – Natural

"I think Nature was playing some kind of joke on us," she sighs, mussing up his _naturally curly hair_ and shaking her head at the fine, spidery shadows his _naturally long eyelashes _cast over his cheeks when he's asleep, before hopping off the bed and returning to the mirror to fight with hair-curlers and mascara.

#46 – Horizon

"You're not going to make me stand at the window and watch again, are you?" Carl asks nervously when Katie comes bounding in, flushed and excited, announcing that Terry told her that the formation of the clouds means there's going to be a huge storm before nightfall.

#47 – Valiant

"I'd rather have you _smart_ and _alive_ than a _dead hero_," she snaps, still trembling and upset from the experience, when he laments that he should have tried to stop the robber who stripped them at gunpoint of money and valuables on the way back from a live theatre event in the city.

#48 – Virtuous

"Of course not; and anyway, I'm glad you're not a saint," he assures her with a half-shy, half suggestive smile, when she asks him despondently if he thinks she's a bad person.

#49 – Victory

"I win again!" she announces delightedly, and spends a few minutes dancing around the room and gloating rather obnoxiously that her sudden and inexplicable winning streak in their mini chess tournament hasn't come to an end yet.

#50 – Defeat

When she trips over her own foot in mid-dance, he tries and fails to hold back a burst of laughter at the adorably undignified heap she lands in on the floor, and she tries and fails to be annoyed at him for laughing, and ends up giggling too.

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End Notes: Hee! I think these two would be adorable together. I was so disappointed to find out they weren't a default pairing, even though Joe/Katie and Carl/Ellen are fiendishly adorable, too. :)


	4. Kurt and Dia, delta theme

Kurt/Dia – Delta theme set

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#01 – Air

When Dia first meets the solemn, spiky-haired young woodsman apprentice on a walk she's only taking to make Gina happy, she returns flushed and smiling, and not entirely because, as her best friend declares delightedly, the fresh air's done her good.

#02 – Apples

He knows that _an apple a day keeps the doctor away_, and if there's one thing she could use it's a miracle cure, but he fills the little basket with blueberries instead, because he heard from someone that the frail, green-eyed girl he's been thinking about all week likes them best.

#03 – Beginning

She doesn't like to worry Gina, or Martha or the doctor, but when she finds herself growing faint and a little nauseous shortly after Kurt passes with a small smile and a long, intense look, she hurries over to the Clinic, only to pout in time with Gina's outraged protest that they're _not taking this seriously_ when Martha and the doctor exchange grins and tell her that her symptoms are perfectly normal for a girl just beginning to fall in love.

#04 – Bugs

She's already been in his thoughts and behind his eyelids when he closes his eyes for the better part of the season, but this strange, dark-haired, elfin girl at the Sanitarium wins his eternal respect, too, by picking up a cockroach more fearlessly than either he or Joe has ever been able to.

#05 – Coffee

"Let me show you how to make the tea Gina and I always drink," Dia suggests tentatively when she notices the slight shaking in Kurt's hands as he pours himself a third cup of coffee; "It's far better for you."

#06 – Dark

Most of the time, she knows that people just don't fall in love so soon, but whenever she sees his eyes, dark and intense, she finds it hard to remember.

#07 – Despair

"I think you'll be waiting a long time," she says softly when he promises to take her skiing when her health improves.

#08 – Doors

After accidentally walking in on a crudely-named _make-out session_ that she was both delighted and painfully embarrassed to see, Gina made a pact with herself to call in Woody to build Dia her own room, complete with a door and lock.

#09 – Drink

"You were right; tastes better than coffee, too," he said gruffly with a tiny smile, passing her a cup of the tea she taught him how to make.

#10 – Duty

When Dia laments, head cradled at her best friend's knee while one slim pale hand runs through short silky-cool dark hair, that Kurt is probably only coming to see her because he feels _obligated_ now, Gina hides a smile and comments lightly that she's never seen anyone enjoy a _duty_ so much, then.

#11 – Earth

"We went on a world cruise once," Dia says when the idea of a trip _right around the whole planet_ comes up, "just Mama and Papa and me; but I think I would have enjoyed it more if...someone else had been there," and Kurt smiles, thinking that she might not mean Gina.

#12 – End

"It doesn't matter anyway," she declares passionately to the girl who's trying to prod her gently into making up her first quarrel with her first _real boyfriend_, "because I'll be dead in a year, anyway," and now she has an angry red hand print on her cheek, and Gina's eyes are filling with furious, terrified tears.

#13 – Fall

He thought that walking in the mountains with her in Summer was the most beautiful thing ever, but each season she seems to outdo herself, and now he wishes it would stay Autumn forever.

#14 – Fire

When he tried to talk her into passing on the Fire Festival, because _the nights are freezing now_, and _you know you catch colds easily_, and _I don't want to see you miserable_, she argued more fiercely than he had entirely expected of her, because _we can't refuse an honour like that when Theodore asked us himself, Kurt!_

#15 – Flexible

Both of them have developed to be stubborn and unbending, but find themselves drawn to flexibility in others; so maybe, Dia thinks with a sweet, tiny smile as he agrees on a walk by the shore instead of in the mountains because she's craving the salt sea air and openness, they can see a little bit of it in each other, and they'll help each other develop it.

#16 – Flying

It seems sort of funny to her that he dreams of flying, when he seems so mired in _reality_ during his waking hours.

#17 – Food

"You know that they used to call tomatoes _love apples_, right?" Joe grins at his big brother and the pretty girl Kurt brought home again this Tuesday when he finds them sharing a ripe, juicy, bright red tomato from that Keltie girl's farm.

#18 – Foot

He thinks there might be something wrong with him, but he just can't stop staring at those tiny little shoes, and wondering how any girl small enough to have feet that size can make such a huge difference in his life; this is about the same time that he decides to stop spouting poetry until he's had enough sleep.

#19 – Grave

She's thought about death, and become well acquainted with the thought, over her girlhood years, so when she notices Kurt talking closely with Keltie and blushing at something, the phrase _some things worse than death_ doesn't even occur to her, even though that's how she feels.

#20 – Green

"To—to tell you the truth, I made it myself, but I had to buy the emerald from Keltie," he admits, cheeks and ears growing red as her eyes fill with tears of relief that she was wrong about the possibility of losing him; "It's kind of embarrassing that some city-girl is a better miner than me, but I really wanted an emerald, because green was made for you."

#21 – Head

Sometimes he worries that he's going to get a swelled head from all her compliments when she sees the little things he's been working on in his free time, but she just laughs and tells him that he couldn't be arrogant if he tried.

#22 – Hollow

"Do you think I'm lacking in substance and character, Kurt?" she asks gravely when she overhears someone in town – she refuses to tell him who, because she doesn't want a beating on her conscience – talking about _spoiled, shallow, rich city girls_.

#23 – Honor

"Why don't you tell her it's bothering you?" he suggests with a shrug in response to her halting, slightly ashamed admission that she's getting a little angry that all Gina's time seems to be for the doctor lately, and he's kind of proud of her, the strength an honor it can take to give up something for someone else's happiness, when she draws herself up to her full height, nearly glaring, and shoots back, "I will _not_."

#24 – Hope

He likes that their relationship is progressing slowly, he tells Woody one night when it's just the two of them because Joe is out gallivanting with Katie, because he likes to have something to hope for; Woody just snorts in reply and teases him that he'd _prefer_ however their relationship was, as long as Dia was part of it.

#25 – Light

When they dance at her best friend's wedding to the doctor, she discovers that for such a serious, solemn person, Kurt is_ very_ light on his feet, and wonders blushingly if it's just love that makes her think he's the best dancer she's ever seen.

#26 – Lost

For the first few nights in that big Sanitarium alone following Gina's wedding, she feels terribly small and lost in a big, unfriendly world, but now that Kurt has been sneaking out to keep her company, slip into bed with her and hold her until she falls asleep and wakes up to the sunlight at her pillow, it's not so bad.

#27 – Metal

She had to beg and beg and beg before he would agree to do it, take her with him somewhere that might be dangerous, so now she's going to enjoy every _second_, and skips excitedly along next to him, in her brand-new jeans and sweater, on their way to the mines.

#28 – New

"You just bought that, too; sorry," he mutters when her pretty new sweater becomes woefully torn by tripping and landing on a jagged rock; she merely smiles, shakes her head, and rips his shirt off, _just so they're even_.

#29 – Old

On her twenty-first birthday, the day before his twenty-third, they sit together before the fire in the shop, feeling _so_ terribly old and experienced, and when Woody finds them, he laughs and laughs.

#30 – Peace

Even though Dia values her peace and quiet above all else, and knows that children are the fastest way to bring that to a swift and crashing end, every time she hold Gina's blue-haired little son Kieran, she starts dreaming of a baby with Kurt's eyes – but her nose, of course, because someone told her once that she has the _prettiest_ little nose.

#31 – Poison

He hardly ever gets _really_ angry with her, but when he found her setting out poison for the mouse she had seen darting around the other day, it was one of those times.

#32 – Pretty

He's had many arguments with the other guys in town over whether or not a girl so sickly-pale and dour can be really _pretty_, and he always wins by virtue of pure stubbornness.

#33 – Rain

After several hours of pleading, he finally gave in and took her for that walk in the rain, partly because it's beyond his power to tell her no, and partly because he was sure she would be beautiful, laughing in the rain.

#34 – Regret

But when she came down the next day with a terrible fever, and Kurt and Gina both moved temporarily into the Sanitarium, and no one knew for a few days what was going to happen, he swore next time to hold firm despite big, pleading green eyes.

#35 – Roses

The first thing she saw the first time in a fortnight she woke up lucid enough to know the difference was a big, beautiful bouquet of roses that Kurt and Gina had spent hours on in celebration when Dia's fever had finally broken; the second thing she saw was him, and she sighed a little, because she wished he had been the first.

#36 – Secret 

"C'mon, Kurt, it's _Dia_; she's not telling Gina all your secrets anymore than you tell me all of hers, or I tell Katie all of yours," Joe scoffs as utterly without scorn as only Joe knows how.

#37 – Snakes

She's good around bugs, he knows, but apparently she draws the line at _snakes_, he thinks with a tiny grin as something green and slithery darts past her dainty little shoe and she jumps immediately into his arms with a terrified shriek.

#38 – Snow

After how sick she got from a day in the rain, he was loath to do it, but even the doctor said she would be fine with a day of tobogganing, and when she came back in, she had such roses in her cheeks and sparkle in her eye that Gina told Kurt delightedly that he was a miracle-worker, and Martha begged him to marry Dia so they could see her so happy all the time.

#39 – Solid

So he did, dropped to one knee in front of Martha and Gina and Alex and little Kieran, pulled a beautiful Blue Feather from his rucksack, and put into tangible symbol the promise they had both made to each other, if only silently, almost the moment they had met.

#40 – Spring 

There's so much planning to do that it's late in the Spring before the wedding finally happens, but they've been waiting for years to be _husband and wife_, so a few more weeks isn't a big problem.

#41 – Stable

Her new brother-in-law laments occasionally that life here is _so predictable_, and she agrees with a tiny, serene little smile, delighting in the safety and stability of Flowerbud Village and the people she loves most.

#42 – Strange

"Man, you two are weird," Joe laughs when he finds both of them staring, enraptured, at the tiny cradle Kurt just finished with only a little help from Woody.

#43 – Summer

She always sort of hoped that she might have a summer baby, but it only takes going through the early stages of pregnancy in heat and humidity to be very, very glad that the later stages and childbirth won't come until the weather is milder.

#44 – Taboo

Kurt and Joe come storming into the kitchen, furious and embarrassed, because Katie just told them that the thought of them kissing is the stuff of any hot-blooded girl's fantasies, and it doesn't do a lot for their moods when Dia nods gravely and agrees.

#45 – Ugly

"Consider the source, Dia," he scoffs when she and Gina come back upset from a trip to town, because a group of adolescents followed them down the street shouting jeering remarks; "Neither of you are _ugly_ to anyone with eyes and a working brain."

#46 – War

She doesn't know why it surprises her so much to find out that he's been fighting an ongoing battle with depression as long as she has with physical illness.

#47 – Water

"Because, Kurt, my water just broke," she retorts, grinning ecstatically through impatience when he asks, crestfallen, why they have to leave their romantic hideaway on the shore already.

#48 – Welcome

The doctor and his nurse and wife watch from the doorway, beaming with almost the same delight as the young parents welcoming their tiny son into the world.

#49 – Winter 

When little Mini-Joe, as he comes inevitably to be known throughout Flowerbud for taking after his namesake in personality and smile as much as in name, goes out for a walk through the gently falling snow, sandwiched securely between Mommy and Daddy, he thinks that life just doesn't get any better than this; then they stop at the Clinic and Auntie Gina brings out a blueberry pie that she made specially for Mommy, and the thinks delightedly that he was wrong before, and it just has.

#50 – Wood 

She overhears Kurt telling Woody one day that he'll stop calling himself an _apprentice_ when he gets good enough that the tools and the wood work together smoothly enough that they feel like they've become an extension of his own body, and she grins and blushes, because that's how it is when they make love: they can't imagine ever being separate again.

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End Notes: Whee! This was fun. They're cute. :)

Next will probably be Alex/Gina again, because I was on the message boards again, and Gina-bashing always makes me want to write that pairing just to piss off the more nutbar factions of Alex-fangirldom.

Alex/Gina: Because unlike his fanbrats, he's got taste. :)


	5. Alex and Gina, alpha theme

Alex/Gina – Alpha theme set

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#01 – Comfort

He's never had to deal with losing a patient before, let alone one as close to family as Martha; through waves of pain and guilt, he's glad that she's here to squeeze his hand and transmit mute sympathy with wide golden-brown eyes and tear-wet lashes.

#02 – Kiss

They both whisper their own private apologies to Martha even as they give themselves up to the sensation of one another's lips and breath, gentle and tentative and meltingly sweet, because it seems somehow _too soon_, even if the kindly old lady that loved them both like her own children predicted this before either of them could catch up.

#03 – Soft

He's known since hiring her full-time that she was very good at her job, but when he gets that terrible flu and becomes her _patient_ instead of her _boss_ for the first time, he appreciates just how perfect she is as a nurse, right down to her voice, low and soft and soothing.

#04 – Pain

She tries to be dignified and grown-up in front of him, but still closes her eyes tightly and flinches a bit when he gives her a shot, because she doesn't even believe her own words when she says they _don't hurt that much_.

#05 – Potatoes

He knows that it was a difficult recipe, so even though he doesn't approve of overdoing the carbs, he gladly accepts a generous dish of those creamy scalloped potatoes she made because Dia loves them and needs to put on some weight anyway, and feels that her little flush of pride is more than enough to make up for the inevitable indigestion.

#06 – Rain

She has a new favourite way of waking him up on the rainy afternoons that leave him drowsy, and employs it delightedly at the first sign of a drizzle, wrapping both arms loosely around him from behind and nibbling softly at his earlobe until his hand comes up to tighten in her hair and his moan trembles through her where she's pressed to him.

#07 – Chocolate

When Dia has to ask her the same question three times before she absorbs it, she teases her best friend about daydreaming about _dark chocolate-brown eyes_, and they spend the rest of the afternoon giggling and trading flowery descriptors for Alex and Kurt.

#08 – Happiness

For a girl who's spent her life living through the happiness of making others happy, the overwhelming rush of joy when he pulled her close and murmured _will you please_ into her hair and then held out the Blue Feather between them was nearly terrifying.

#09 – Telephone

He's glad she's working on becoming more outgoing and personable, but he finds it hard to remember that when he finds her chatting pleasantly with the new farmer, Graham, scheduling an appointment by phone, because he recalls how closely the boy watched her when he came by to introduce himself.

#10 – Ears

"If we ever have a baby," she declares sleepily, running one hand over his cheek, "I hope he has your ears."

#11 – Name

The schooling she worked hard enough at to finish in half the time taught her the names for every part a person could have and everything that could go wrong with them, but she still has a hard time coming up with a name for the sensation that chokes her with something like tears when he looks at her like that, desire and adoration and love mingled.

#12 – Sensual

He knows it's neither the time nor the place, but once he has his nurse stripped for a routine check-up, the velvetsoft of her skin is irresistible, and her soft moans as his hands trail up and down slender pale thighs urge him on.

#13 – Death

They both learned about death very young, him because his parents wanted a doctor in the family and made death as terrifying as they could to spur a little boy to do something to fight it, and her because _someone_ had to explain to Dia, three years old and alarmed, why her kitty wasn't running around and playing anymore.

#14 – Sex

Even though she protested frantically at the time, aching for his touch and tossing and turning all night in her little cot in the Sanitarium, unaware that he was next door in the same state, she's glad now that he insisted they wait until their wedding night.

#15 – Touch

It started out as _dancing_, but as soon as her hand found his shoulder and his hand found her waist, they moved closer together until they were just _standing-up-cuddling_, as Katie observed with a giggle.

#16 – Weakness

_Well, everyone has a weakness_, he reflects, giving up in defeat and leaving a pile of unfinished work until the morning because those gentle, sweet, pleading eyes had begged him to _please get some rest_.

#17 – Tears

Looking up in alarm when warm teardrops land at her cheek, she hurriedly turns off the movie, and gives him a comforting hug.

#18 – Speed

"I had the proper inspiration," he grins, running one hand lightly over the curve of her hip and following the same path with his lips when she asks, startled, how on earth he got up here so fast.

#19 – Wind

When he sneaks up on her while she's deep in thought and tickles her sides relentlessly until they're both sprawled out on the ground, breathless, the names she calls him are lost in the strong gusts of wind rushing in from the ocean, and it's just as well, because they really weren't very nice.

#20 – Freedom

She doesn't really have much use for the concept of _freedom_, despite the trip she would have liked to take to the city for a garden fair, impossible because people here need her, because, she thinks, looking from Dia, seated on the cot for her check-up, to Alex, supervising his nurse from the corner, there are some things that are better

#21 – Life

"I can't believe you thought you'd be an annoyance," he laughs, very gently and kindly when she blushingly admits an old insecurity; "I can't imagine my life without you – I hardly _want_ to."

#22 – Jealousy

In addition to being relentlessly healthy, Graham has been busy trying to get his farm established, so he hasn't come around since that first time; now that things have slowed down and he has time to get sick, Alex can feel himself starting to dislike the boy again – or at least, the way he always comes with a gift and an admiring smile for the nurse.

#23 – Hands

She can see that something's wrong, so she grabs hold of the back of his lab coat as he tries to brush past her, and hangs on tight until he tells her what's wrong.

#24 – Taste

"Well, I suppose I have to admire his good taste in women," Alex laughs a long time later, after she's assured him earnestly that he's the most important – the _only_ important – man in her life.

#25 – Devotion

They both had some reservations about working together now that they're _married_, but it seems that their devotion, both to their jobs and to each other, has only grown.

#26 – Forever

It seems that no amount of time they have to just be together is _too much_, and when he'll let her snuggle up like this and just listen to his breathing, she could happily stay this way forever.

#27 – Blood

He shook his head slightly over her unconscious form, reflecting that he might have to retract his no-interruptions-when-there's-a-patient policy when she somehow contrived to put a deep gash in her arm with a shard of broken glass, and went calmly about cleaning and bandaging the cut, even as she began to stumble from blood loss.

#28 – Sickness

It's heartwarming to see Dia so anxious to take care of her friend through the worst of the inevitable flu at the tail-end of the season, but he's a little disappointed, too, because he was looking forward to taking care of Gina himself.

#29 – Melody

"I'm really not very good," she says quietly when he asks her to repeat the soothing little song he found her humming, but he's just heard enough to know better.

#30 – Star

"Why didn't you try out for a _role_ in the play?" he asks, confused, when she announces, flushed and triumphant, that Dia is going to be starring and she's going to be doing costumes, and now she's creeping off, a little hurt that he doesn't think much of supporting roles, because if he hasn't noticed, that's sort of what she does.

#31 – Home

After a hectic week-long visit to the city he lived in before Flowerbud Village, he asks what she thought, and she smiles and says that the city is very beautiful, and now she understands why he's so forgetful, used to trying to do everything at once, but she doesn't understand how he could ever call it _home_.

#32 – Confusion

It's bewildering, to say the least, when Gina spends a week veering wildly between ecstatically happy and sobbing in Dia's arms while the dark-haired girl's green eyes flash as she calls him a brute for upsetting her best friend, but he has his own delighted suspicions on what's doing it.

#33 – Fear

"I-I'm just afraid that I won't be any good as a mother," he hears her confess softly to Dia, and feels an overwhelming rush of affection towards his _sister-in-law_ when she cuddles Gina close and laughs softly that she's been a wonderful mother to _her_ for the last ten years, even when they were both little girls, three and three-and-a-half.

#34 – Thunder/Lightning

It's one of the only times he's ever spoken so sharply to her, when he finds her trying to sneak out during a terrible thunderstorm to bring in the laundry she hung out to dry.

#35 – Bonds

He's finally found a practical purpose for all those ribbons she always wears in her hair, and as she gazes up at him, apprehensive and excited, wrists tightly bound together and to the bedpost, he thanks God, the Harvest Goddess, whoever, for creative hair-dressing.

#36 – Market

She's the quietest person he's ever met who's addicted to haggling, and he's the friendliest person she's ever met who hates it.

#37 – Technology

She shakes her head and giggles softly when she finds him, on his day off, hunched over a little hand-held gaming device and deeply engrossed in _Trauma Center: Under the Knife._

#38 – Gift

When she asks him what he might like for his birthday, he tells her with a dopey smile that she's already giving him a child, and she sighs and tells him gently that he's not much help.

#39 – Smile

"She'll have your smile," he says with a dreamy smile of his own, running his fingers lightly over her swelling tummy, because he's as certain that the baby is a girl as he is of his own name.

#40 – Innocence

She likes to playfully reminisce about _back when she was an innocent_, and he likes to laugh that she couldn't be anything else if she tried.

#41 – Completion

"Alex…we're not finished the paperwork yet," she protests, even as she arches into his hands and closes her own over them to urge him farther up under her blouse.

#42 – Clouds

"Sweetheart, you promised that you would call me if you needed help!" he says severely, lifting her easily off the stool despite the baby due any day, before finishing the job of covering the nursery walls with pretty blue paper covered in fluffy white clouds himself.

#43 – Sky

As it happens, she really _shouldn't_ have come to the Flower Festival, because the contractions come swiftly, and Alex ends up delivering the baby a few meters out of the Square, with the help of an Ellen too excited to be any use; when she finally collapses back into Lyla's arms, she gazes sleepily up at the clear blue spring sky, and dreamily suggests a name for their daughter.

#44 – Heaven

Martha told her there would be these moments, with Alex and Gina and little Skye all cuddled together in the same armchair, when she would like to live forever, because Heaven can't possibly hold anything half this wonderful.

#45 – Hell

Martha told her there would be these moments, too, stumbling exhaustedly out of bed in the middle of the night, just after finally dropping off to sleep, for another feeding, and waking up feeling as though you hadn't gotten more than an hour; but she still can't agree with Eve that it's _Hell_, because she would go through anything for Skye, and this is wonderful in its own way.

#46 – Sun

Even if she wasn't too shy to leave the house in it, she's fairly certain that Alex wouldn't let her wear that bikini one of the girls brought her back from the city, because they both know she sunburns terribly, so she just models it for him in their bedroom.

#47 – Moon

Skye, four years old and outraged, can't understand why Daddy laughed so hard and Mommy looked like she wanted to, when she stormed back into the house after a play-date with Auntie Dia and Uncle Kurt's son, shouting furiously, _Will just showed me his bum!_

#48 – Waves

He's delighted that Skye has her mother's beautiful honey-brown eyes, full of warmth and gentle kindness, but wishes that she might have had her mother's hair, too, falling thick in pale, shimmering blue waves like the ocean on a calm day.

#49 – Hair

She's delighted that Skye has her father's hair, fine and silken-soft and night-dark, but thinks wistfully that Alex's eyes, soft grey and sparkling with humour, would have made her even more beautiful.

#50 – Supernova

When Skye and Will ask solemnly if they can borrow some of Mommy's glass mixing bowls because they're playing Spaceman and they need helmets, Alex casts a helpless look at Gina, who returns it with an impish little smile of _you can take this one, Daddy_.

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End Notes: Yes, I'm back to these two. I can't help it! They're so darn cute! XD No relation to the first one. Different kid, and a different proposal scene, because I like doing those.


	6. Louis and Gina, epsilon theme

Louis/Gina - Epsilon theme set

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#01 – Motion

His two-week stay at the Sanitarium with what he calls a _minor mining accident_ is turning out surprisingly restful, considering that the pretty girl with braids and glasses that runs it never sits still, always bustling quietly around.

#02 – Cool

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow," he mutters, one hand clamped over his mouth, glaring balefully at the cup of steaming coffee and admitting that maybe she had a point when she said he should wait for it to cool a bit.

#03 – Young

She had always assumed that he was younger than her by a couple years, at least, so it's surprising when she finds out that he's five years older.

#04 – Last

She half-expected to cry on the last day of his stay here, because she's so enjoyed having company for the first time since Dia and Kurt got married, but ends up laughing instead when Ann comes to pick him up and brings a tiny dark grey kitten – named Louis, she tells Gina with a wink - wearing little glasses and looking decidedly annoyed about it.

#05 – Wrong

She's taken a wrong turn, scurrying from the shower, towel clutched tightly around her and hair hanging damp and curling down to her waist, into Louis's room instead of Ann's to wait for her clothes to dry from a heavy rainstorm, and now he's dying to go the wrong way too, welcome her warmly and urge her to stay instead of pointing her down the hall.

#06 – Gentle

When he comes in for a flu shot, he's so obviously nervous that she volunteers half-playfully to hold his hand while Alex readies and administers the needle, because she's secretly terrified of them too.

#07 – One

He turns bright red and mutters something about a late night when he comes downstairs to ask Ann snappishly to keep the noise down while people are trying to sleep, only to find Gina, who was over for lunch and stayed to help.

#08 – Thousand

"I wasn't exaggerating much when I said I've read it a thousand times," she laughs softly when he stares, bewildered, after reading a passage from her favourite book aloud, only to have her quote along with him right to the end of the page.

#09 – King

"King me," he requested smugly, and her adorably annoyed little pout, because she was _so sure_ she had this one as good as won, was like an extra reward.

#10 – Learn

They've both learned a good deal from Ann and from each other: he's learned how to tell a second-degree burn on sight, and she's learned just when to duck under the table to avoid the debris.

#11 – Blur

She's aching and half-conscious from a tumble down a steep hill, and her glasses are lying broken somewhere halfway down, but she still knows by his voice that that blur of unkempt darkbrown and rumpled white is him, and it's the most beautiful sight in the world.

#12 – Wait

He'd like to stay behind and make sure she's still okay when she wakes back up again, but the young doctor, although _very_ grateful to him for rescuing his poor sweet clumsy little nurse, seems anxious to get rid of him, especially when Gina cuddles against Louis's shoulder and smiles a little in her sleep.

#13 – Change

"I guess it's an okay change," he shrugs awkwardly when she asks wistfully, "but I still think you look better with your glasses," and she's glad he thinks so because she _sees_ better with her glasses too, and can't wait for them to be fixed so the dim shapes and colors around her coalesce back into the world she knows.

#14 – Command

He's a little nervous when Alex calls to him to wait up, because something about it doesn't sound like a _request, _but he relaxes immediately when the young doctor reminds him with a little grin that there's a special day coming up at the end of autumn, and effectively clears up a problem he's been having by informing him, friend to a friend, that Gina likes coral jewelery best.

#15 – Hold

She flushes sweetly pink when he tells her that she's a natural born _mother_ as well as a natural born _nurse_, because when she found him on the couch behind Ann's workbench, in the grip of a nightmare it just felt…well, _natural_ to kneel and cuddle him close until he woke up and calmed down.

#16 – Need

"No, Louis, I _do_ like them, they're very beautiful," she assures him hastily when his expression grows panicked and lost, "but there's only so much jewellery any girl needs, and these gifts all the time really aren't necessary – I like just being _with_ you."

#17 – Vision

For both of them, the world turns into a dizzying and incomprehensible jumble of colour without their glasses; but that's why they can see better than most people in other ways, and accepted easily and gladly what might have left another young couple miserable and confused.

#18 – Attention

But understanding it doesn't always mean knowing how to handle it, and it's only a matter of weeks after he's first asked _would you like to_ and she said _yes, thank-you_ and they spent an evening drinking sodas at Dukes, before Alex has to suggest lightly that maybe Louis has been a little chilly to her lately because he feels neglected in favour of long hours at the Clinic with a man who _might still like her a little, you know._

#19 – Soul

He's heard her say before than _a healthy soul is necessary for physical health_, and he wonders a little sourly how much of that idea she's picked up from the doctor.

#20 – Picture

One night, Louis tells Gina with a grin that someday he wants a picture of her in some sexy lingerie, and Gina, who's been gulping down Martha's special hot rum toddies all day for a cold, blushes and strips immediately down to just innocent schoolgirl white knickers and knee-socks, arms instinctively folded over her chest, and tells him sadly that this is the best she can do on such short notice.

#21 – Fool

"I'm sorry I was acting so ridiculous last night," Gina mutters, bright red and miserable, upon waking up the next morning with a tremendous headache and dim recollections of crawling into his lap wearing…not a lot; Louis just assures her that it's okay, he didn't mind, thinking of the new prize of his photo collection.

#22 – Mad

"Geez, you two are nuts," Ann declares, shaking her head, when she finds Louis and Gina trading glasses, just to see what will happen, and each dissolving into gales of laughter at the sight of the other squinting furiously to get used to a different prescription.

#23 – Child

"If we ever have a kid," Louis chuckles as they trade back again and both rub their eyes dizzily, "he'll need glasses with lenses an inch thick."

#24 – Now

"I know," she smiles into his hair when she materializes behind him in the Junk Shop mid-morning, slender arms winding around his neck and a soft little cheek pressed to his, and he asks timidly if she isn't supposed to be at work right now; "But I didn't want to wait until _later_ to see you, so the doctor let me take an early lunch."

#25 – Shadow

He thinks Ann named that cat after him with good reason, because whenever he comes to visit the Sanitarium, Gina adopts two shadows, both named Louis.

#26 – Goodbye

She's said plenty of goodbyes in her life, and there have always been tears in her eyes; so somehow, when it's time to say it to Flowerbud Village for a wedding trip of two months with Louis, it seems a little wrong to her that the only tears in her eyes are of gladness.

#27 – Hide

When she finds that silly old photo of her with only the knee socks and undies, she blushes furiously, then frowns thoughtfully, and then hunts up Eve to help her with an _extra-special, top-secret mission_.

#28 – Fortune

Louis has felt like his luck had just improved dramatically the first time he met her, and his luck couldn't get any better when they got married; but when he comes home from an evening session in the mines to find a snuggly, affectionate Gina clad in a filmy, lacy contraption of pale yellow, he feels, pulling gently at the material, like it just has.

#29 – Safe

She doesn't exactly feel _safest_ when she's with him, because after all, he doesn't have much more muscle strength and combative skill than she does; but she feels most cherished and loved, and that's like a better kind of safety.

#30 – Ghost

She expects him to laugh, her logical, scientific Louis, when he catches her reading avidly from a big book of ghost stories; instead, he colours a little and asks if he can borrow it when she's done.

#31 – Book

Alex doesn't comment when he notices that Gina has scheduled more time for Louis's appointment than he'll need to do a thorough _check-up_, but grins when he notices that the latter part overlaps with his lunch hour.

#32 – Eye

"Louis, I thought you didn't even _like_ sweets," she huffs in fond annoyance when she catches him eyeing that blueberry pie she made for Dia longingly; and he shrugs sheepishly, "Well, neither do you, but you were sneaking little spoonfuls of the filling the whole time you were making it, and now all our spoons are dirty."

#33 – Never

They've tried skiing once now, Louis thinks, wincing as his sprained ankle gives a throb and reflecting that he really should have taken a cue from Gina, who slunk off inside the lodge to drink hot cocoa after the first half hour and the first three trips down the hill on her face, so now they never have to do it again

#34 – Sing

Even though he doesn't _really_ like it, he asks her at least once a month to make chocolate cream pie, because she always sings while she's kneading the crust and whipping the cream, and he _does_ like hearing her cheerful bursts of song from the kitchen.

#35 – Sudden

It seems awfully sudden, when he announces grimly that he's not going to help Ann at the Junk Shop anymore, now that Gina's finally got time to go with him because Alex ordered her off work until the baby is born, and she can't stop a tiny thread of fear from creeping into her mind, that Louis would rather see Ann alone.

#36 – Stop

At least, until he stops it in its tracks by noticing that something's wrong, picking it relentlessly out of her in the sort of stubbornness that she's never associated with him before, and then he laughs until she pouts at him, because it's just so _funny_, her thinking that he'd spend that kind of time with anyone else when he loves her more each day.

#37 – Time

She thinks he's adorable in the early morning, still asleep, hair even more mussed from sleep, happily snuggling a pillow until she tugs it gently away and insinuates herself between his arm and his shoulder; he thinks she's beautiful in the evening, because her hair and skin blend with the moonlight, and her eyes glow through the dimness until she becomes something elfin and mocking and irresistible.

#38 – Wash

When she lets the cat in from a nice, leisurely walk in the rain, he's covered in mud, so she takes him immediately upstairs for a bath, much to his disapproval; and the Louis without whiskers and a tail but with shaggy dark hair and beautiful hands watches enviously and asks, with huge pitiful eyes, if she'll give _him_ a bath next.

#39 – Torn

When he hears his wife, sigh that _this one didn't turn out, either_, sees her twist that pencil back into her hair to hold up a long heavy mass of silveryblue, hears the sound of ripping paper, he winces: "Gina, my neck is sore from gazing off into the distance; can we stop for today?"

#40 – History

Dia very carefully does _not_ ask why the sight of Tequila Slammers makes both of them giggle and blush madly; there are some things she just doesn't want to know, even about Gina.

#41 – Power

As it turns out, Gina's newfound love of splitting kindling is a good thing, because that winter there's a terrible storm, and the power goes out for three days; they spend most of the time in front of a roaring fire, wrapped up in each other, and don't even notice when the lights come back on.

#42 – Bother

"_I_ wouldn't mind if you didn't bother with nylons anymore," he said hopefully, because even though he likes easing that sheer fabric down her slim, pretty legs, leaving a trail of kisses as he goes, he also likes the idea of being able to slip his hand up under her skirt and make her make those half-horrified, half-pleading little squeaks when he does it in public.

#43 – God

"The problem with the Harvest Goddess," she hears him retort when Ann asks, "is that everyone who's not a farmer is kind of screwed."

#44 – Wall

"That wall is covered in clowns!" Ann exclaims between gales of laughter when two proud aspiring interior designers show her the nursery; "Your kid is going to grow up traumatized!"

#45 – Naked

He always thought that Gina's smile when she looked at him was the prettiest sight in the world, but now that he's seen her eyes filled with that pure, undisguised, exquisite happiness, smiling down at the wee little man in her arms, all of two minutes old, he thinks he's changed his mind.

#46 – Drive

"Don't worry, I know how to do this; I drove a golf cart once," Gina assures him with a comforting pat as she starts the gleaming red rental car, and Louis says a quick prayer for the two of them and decides grimly that Michael will give little Jody a good home.

#47 – Harm

It's strange that two parents as quiet and careful as them should have such a rough-and-tumble little boy – Auntie Ann's influence, they suspect – but at least their respective life paths, nursing and often-disastrous inventing, keep both from panicking the first time Jody comes storming back in, bruised and bleeding, from a fist-fight with Auntie Ann and Uncle Blue's daughter.

#48 – Precious

"I suppose this is what being a _mommy_ is about," she says sheepishly when she notices him staring, astonished, because both Jody's first sippy-cup and one of her best china plates were slipping from the shelves, and she lunged for the _babyhood keepsake _first, leaving the plate to chip on the counter top.

#49 – Hunger

"I'm hungrier when we have supper at the Inn than when Mommy makes it," Jody tells his father in a tone of finality, and Gina thinks she might be a little more hurt over her small son's words if she wasn't too busy trying not to laugh.

#50 - Believe

By the time Gina finds her tummy swelling with their third baby, it seems impossible to imagine that they ever wanted _five_; but every time Jody's little sister Robyn smiles, it's equally impossible imagine that they ever wanted to stop after one.

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End Notes: Aaaaack...more Gina. Well, I wouldn't be much of a fangirl if I didn't do this at least once, have two Gina-pairings in a row. Sad thing is, I have at least three more I want to do. :(

Oh, well. The next one I've got planned is...uh...something involving Maria. Because she is cute. :D


	7. Ray and Maria, beta theme

Ray/Maria – Beta theme set

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#01 – Walking

He's been watching her wander in front of the lake for about an hour now, and his stomach does flips every time she looks up to catch him staring, but he can't leave because it's dark already and he doesn't like the thought of her walking home alone; finally, just as he goes to offer, old man Terry takes her arm and marches her firmly back down the path, and Ray wonders if it's just nerves that makes him think that she looked a little disappointed.

#02 – Waltz

Just now, Maria thinks that dances are very dull, but protests hotly when Eve suggests with a sly little wink to Ellen and Katie that it might have something to do a certain _Mr. Fisherman_ declaring months ago that he just _doesn't dance_.

#03 – Wishes

Ray didn't even bother going to float a wish boat this year, and he thinks it's probably a good thing, because it wouldn't be fair to any of the girls who offered to take him out of pity, if all his wishes involved a different girl.

#04 – Wonder

She's been preoccupied this week, with Father getting sick and a new shipment of books coming in, so she only has time to spend every other minute wondering, baffled, if Mr. Fisherman is okay after he ran screaming from the Library the other afternoon.

#05 – Worry

He has no such constraints on his time, so he has plenty to spend worrying and agonizing that she must think he's crazy now, until he finally has to go back to apologize.

#06 – Whimsy

She blushes guiltily when a visitor catches her in the middle of a daydream involving the noble, scruffily handsome man of the wild that her elegant gentleman prince has recently morphed into; and when she looks closer and finds her daydream echoed right in front of her, she blushes harder.

#07 - Waste/Wasteland

He shakes his head a little at the influence she has over him when they've hardly even spoken; in a season, he's gone from not caring about books at all, to thinking of a barren wasteland when he sees an empty bookshelf.

#08 - Whiskey and rum

_Well, that's a hell of a thing_, he thinks helplessly, his whiskey glass hovering about halfway to his mouth, when the quiet, elegant woman that's been in his thoughts all night smiles tentatively down at him, a glass of a lot of cola and a little bit of rum in her hand, and asks if this seat is taken.

#09 – War

And after they're finished with their drinks, he finally works up the nerve to asks to walk her home, and on that walk – the long, long, long way around – they discover a shared interest, and as he watches her talking excitedly about military tactics and maneuvers and weapons, he vows never to judge someone on appearances again.

#10 – Weddings

It's almost as surprising to her when she runs into him at the doctor's wedding to his pretty nurse, and they end up seated in a corner watching the other guests dance; she doesn't think she's ever seen Ray with a smile this big, and she's frankly astonished that he's having so much fun at a wedding.

#11 – Birthday

He knows it's her birthday, so when she hunts him down and begs him to take her ice fishing this afternoon, he has his doubts, but he does it anyway, because you can't really tell a girl forget it on her birthday, even if you suspect that she got hit in the head with a book and lost her marbles.

#12 – Blessing

And now the fish are practically jumping out of the little hole she helped him chip in the ice, and he thinks that Maria, in her pretty cream cashmere coat and her blue toque and scarf and mittens, cheeks pink from the cold, must be a good luck charm in addition to an instant good mood now that he can talk to her without running away.

#13 – Bias

Theodore wonders with a grin if that Ray fellow has something to do with it when his daughter, who didn't even _like_ fish a year ago, heads out with a rod and a can of bait, determined to catch their supper tonight, because fish taste _so_ much better fresh.

#14 – Burning

She knows that every girl is entitled to a steamy fantasy every now and again, but she still turns beet-red with embarrassment when the trout burn to charcoal because she's imagining muscled arms wrapped around her, naked chest to her back, while he demonstrates the proper way to cast a fishing line, and then gets distracted and drops searing hot kisses along her shoulders instead, hair brushing deliciously over her skin.

#15 – Breathing

When he finds her daydreaming at the front desk again, he grins and moves to startle her out of it, but then something in the quality of her rapid breathing and slightly glassy eyes turns him bright red and sends him bolting behind the nearest shelf until he gets…certain parts back under control.

#16 – Breaking

Of course, while he's backing away, he backs into the shelf instead of behind it, and now she's hurrying toward him, alarmed, and he thinks, swearing eloquently, that his nose might be broken from that book hitting him in the face when it got dislodged.

#17 – Belief

"Even if none of it's true, I don't think that _believing in lies_ is terribly bad, especially if those who choose to are so much kinder and more responsible because of it," she tells him softly when she's finally given up on arguing the existence of the Harvest Goddess.

#18 – Balloon

After he tells her, lamenting the stupidity of the kid he was, that he used to think he could fly if he got enough helium balloons, she goes straight over to Ann and Louis's balloon stall and buys a big bunch so they can try it.

#19 – Balcony

He's never read Romeo and Juliet, but when he passes by the Mayor's house and notices Maria out on the balcony, idly dragging a brush through long, thick dark hair, slim shape clad in a deep purple dressing down and illuminated by the lights in the room behind her, the image seems achingly familiar, and he'd love to get up there to kiss her goodnight if he could climb.

#20 – Bane

"It—it's just that he's had such an interesting life, traveling all over the world and living so close to nature, and almost everything I've experienced has been through books; he must think I'm terribly dull and sheltered and spoiled," Maria sighs when Ellen and Ann and Gwen and Eve finally manage, through their combined dogged efforts, to pick out of her why she's been moping all day.

#21 – Quiet

"I like quiet girls better; girls that chatter on all the time make me tired," he says defensively when Dan asks curiously if Maria doesn't get a little boring sometimes, her nose always in a book, and none of the guys have the heart to remind Ray that he hardly ever talks to a girl, period, let alone the noisy talkative ones.

#22 – Quirks

Theodore likes to joke with him that he's the only guy who'll put up with Maria's little quirks, like spending all day immersed in a book, and it never really sits right with him, because it's not a quirk, it's just...Maria.

#23 – Question

It's taken close to a year, but he's finally got from the point of being too nervous around her to ask for a book, to marching into the library, (almost) without breaking a sweat, and asking her to join him for a walk or a drink or something; as for how long it'll be before he can ask her what he really wants to without passing out, that's anyone's guess.

#24 – Quarrel

She finds it very hard to agree with Eve and Katie when they say that arguing is the most fun part of any relationship, because right now, she's miserably afraid that Ray is never going to speak to her again.

#25 – Quitting

When she asks him timidly if he could please stop scratching things out of library books and scribbling revisions in the margin, he grins and suggests that she stop ordering books with incorrect facts on fish and fishing technique.

#26 – Jump

If it had been anyone else, he would've been annoyed, but when Maria wriggles out of her dress and dives unhesitatingly into the icy ocean water, scaring all the fish away with her splash, he's too busy staring in awe at that figure in that brief little yellow swimsuit.

#27 – Jester

After an evening with Joe and Katie and nonstop giggling and shouts of laughter, Ray and Maria go for a quiet walk together, both very thankful that the other can be serious every now and again.

#28 – Jousting

She's glad that his favourite pastime is something safe, like fishing, she decides as she comes to a passage in the book she's reading right now, in which the hero is gravely wounded in a jousting tournament and the heroine is going dutifully to pieces over it.

#29 – Jewel

"Look, can you make it or not?" Ray asks, grumpy to cover up embarrassment when Tai looks from the sizeable wad of money on the counter, to the several smooth and perfectly rounded moonstones, to the elaborate bracelet in the sketch, and grins knowingly.

#30 – Just

"Come on, Maria; don't you think beheading is a little unfair, just for an overdue book?"

#31 – Smirk

"No," she replies after a long moment to consider this, and he doesn't know whether to be intrigued or terrified by that little smile, half sweetness and half evil.

#32 – Sorrow

Maria has always dealt with grief and loss by burying them deep in her favourite book; but when the library burns to the ground in a terrible fire, and she loses haven, purpose, and centuries of Flowerbud customs and jokes and knowledge and loves all at once, she goes immediately to Ray instead, cries into his shoulder for almost an hour while he rocks her gently back and forth and wonders why he feels like crying too.

#33 – Stupidity

But he knows _exactly _why he feels like hunting down the idiot who decided to leave a campfire going nearby.

#34 – Serenade

As the final strains of the song come to an end on her little portable CD player, he stares at her, baffled and wondering whether or not to be hurt: "_Fish Heads_ is the first song that comes to mind when you think of me?"

#35 – Sarcasm

Lots of people have told him about Maria's temper: slow to ignite, but far slower to burn itself out; he didn't really take it seriously, though that she'd probably be cute when she was angry since she's cute the rest of the time, but that was before his first encounter with tightened jaw, flashing eyes, and that customary quirk of irony sharpening into a very biting sarcasm.

#36 – Sordid

"It's Katie's, actually," she tells him absently, flipping a page, and fishing forgotten as soon as his eyes lit on the suggestive cover, he curls up against the base of the tree with her, pulls her half into his lap, and they spend the rest of the day reading together.

#37 – Soliloquy

"Good grief, is he still talking?" Ray mutters as she flips the page, only to reveal that the hero of the novel is still relating his grand adventure to his brother, and Maria laughs softly, because she was just wondering the same thing herself.

#38 – Sojourn

This is the first time they've been in to town together, because most days they alternate between the library or the streams and lakes of the village; and there are probably better ways they could spend it, but time with Maria at the mechanic's shop is better than no time with Maria at all.

#39 – Share

She likes grilled eggplant the best, and he likes grilled yellowtail the best; yet somehow, when they each share half of their lunch with the other, they come away feeling like it's the best meal they've had in a while, although, Eve makes sure to suggest that it might have been the something special they had for dessert.

#40 – Solitary

As different as they are, they both have that occasional near-physical need to be completely alone sometimes, and Theodore, who loves Maria more than anything else in the world, likes to joke that it's because anyone who lives with his daughter will need some time away from the smell of parchment and ink and the sound of page-flipping.

#41 – Nowhere

Sometimes it occurs to him to worry about whether or not Theodore really likes it that some aimless drifter is monopolizing all his daughter's time, and whether he should get a real job instead of spending his days fishing, but then she'll come looking for him, and he'll be able to drop everything and go with her because he has nowhere else to be, and he won't think about it again for weeks.

#42 – Neutral

She's been trying to explain to him the allure of the Mona Lisa, that her expression is so mysterious that you never know what she was thinking; and when his face finally lights up and he tells her that he understands because it's just like watching her, she blushes deeply with a very decided smile.

#43 – Nuance

Theodore thinks that it's a bit of a shame, that as soon as Ray had caught onto how to read her subtle signals that meant significant shifts in mood, Maria had learned from him how to stop being subtle.

#44 – Near

Eventually, Ray's courage catches up with the rest of him and he's able to stutter out the question he's wanted to ask for almost two years now, and amid the hectic wedding preparations, they manage to find time to cuddle together and talk about their life together after the ceremony and the reception and the honeymoon.

#45 – Natural

"You know," Maria says one morning when it's _just them and the fish_, her eyes wide and hopeful as she tugs gently at his shirt, "I think you'd find that you were much more in tune with the fish, and the water, and all of Nature, without these in the way..."

#46 – Horizon

Raised on Anne of Green Gables since she learned to read at four, Maria has spoken often, laughingly or wistfully according to her mood, of Anne Shirley's _bend in the road_, and if it was up to him, she would only find happiness and beauty (and him) around every turn.

#47 – Valiant

She's been trying not to laugh throughout all of it, but Legendary Fish always did have _such_ a funny sound to her, and when he comes home elated and frustrated by having the damn creature on his line and losing it at the last second, she can't keep quiet anymore, and composes a ballad on the spot of the brave Sir Ray, defeated in battle by the watery beast, but never in spirit.

#48 – Virtuous

And now, several minutes later, Maria is pouting a little, because it may be quite true that good wives don't poke fun at their husband's hobbies, but good _husbands_ don't tickle-ambush their wives, either.

#49 - Victory

Try as he might, he's never been able to beat her in a game of chess.

#50 - Defeat

But it doesn't really matter all that much, because every time she wins, she does this pleased, flushed little smile before she can remember all the things her father taught her about a _poor winner_, and it's cute enough to make his defeat a little less crushing.

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End Notes: Meh, I'm not terribly hapy wiht this one, but at least I have a better idea of Maria now. Which is good, as she is all kinds of cute. :D


	8. Jamie and OC, beta theme

Farmergirl/Jamie – Beta theme set

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#01 – Walking

He hated her instantly; everything about her annoyed him, but especially the way she walked, with that little bounce in her step, arms swinging blithely at her sides, head up, beaming happily at everyone she passed.

#02 – Waltz

"Why _shouldn't_ I set my dog on her, when she just comes waltzing into my fields, uninvited?" Jamie demands sulkily when Theodore suggests delicately that he could be a bit more _welcoming_ to Siobhan.

#03 – Wishes

She's been a little depressed through the whole Star Festival, because she _likes_ Kurt, he's very _nice, _just better with Dia and she's better with someone else; but she feels a lot better when she notices the Jamie's bedroom light beaming out through the darkness, because that means he's at home and didn't take a different girl.

#04 – Wonder

When he finds a prettily arranged, prettily wrapped basket on his doorstep, filled with little jars of a dizzying variety of jam, he can only shake his head and wonder if that Siobhan girl he's been avoiding since she came is _all there_.

#05 – Worry

"Actually, Jamie always looks like that," Ellen informs her sadly when a deeply frowning young man hurries past them, and Siobhan asks her friend, alarmed, if he's okay.

#06 – Whimsy

"Um, I don't know that the occasional strange dream is really sign of serious illness," Alex admits hesitantly, but Jamie knows otherwise, because he's been having these _nightmares_ about being married to Siobhan every night for the last _two weeks_, and now he's starting to feel dizzy and giddy when he sees her during the day.

#07 – Waste/Wasteland

Maybe she could have thought it through a little bit more, but when Jamie came by the day after a terrible storm that entirely decimated her already meager field of crops to taunt her that she could _start working anytime_, scooping up a handful of mud and flinging it straight at his head seemed the most natural thing in the world.

#08 - Whiskey and rum

At least they're on sort of speaking terms now, though, because she offered to buy him a drink to make up for ruining his hat, and it took getting drunk together to show them that they had all these things in common.

#09 – War

But just because they're _almost-friends_ now doesn't mean their rivalry has dulled, and at every town festival the war continues, and the villagers smile at the two young farmers having the time of their lives.

#10 – Weddings

"Disgusting," she overhears Jamie mutter at the fourth wedding this spring alone, and when Gwen smushes a piece of wedding cake in Bob's face and he returns the favour with a big sloppy kiss, Siobhan decides that she kind of agrees.

#11 – Birthday

It was just a stupid crush, and she got over it a long time ago; nevertheless, when she finds a plain little card from him, wedged between Gina's dainty _best wishes on your birthday_ and Ellen's giggly _make sure you eat lots of cake today_, congratulating her on not dying this year even though she's an incompetent klutz, she spends a week sleeping with it under her pillow.

#12 – Blessing

The rest of the town tells her regularly what a blessing it is that she answered the advertisement; so far, Jamie's only concession is that _maybe_ she hasn't _completely_ ruined Flowerbud Village.

#13 – Bias

She's the only girl in the village who _really_ likes chokecherries, and she suspects that it's because they remind her of Jamie's company: at first the sourness is a shock, but once you've had a little you want more because everything else seems bland afterwards.

#14 – Burning

It was easily the worst three minutes of his life, pinned between Doug and Gwen so he wouldn't do something _stupid, _watching Bob bolt into the little farmhouse blazing against the winter sky, and then having to wait until the hulking soft-hearted man emerged with an unconscious little brunette tucked securely under one arm.

#15 – Breathing

But the best moment of his life followed soon after, when he dropped, shaking, to the snow next to Gwen and Siobhan to see for himself the little white puffs her breath made in the chill air.

#16 – Breaking

She's been staying with him – on Theodore's knowing, twinkling insistence – while her house is rebuilt, which means she's been constantly nearby and cheerful and sweet and beautiful, so it was only a matter of time before he broke down completely, shouted at her that she was a careless little idiot, and what did she expect him to do if he lost her?

#17 – Belief

Jamie is full of contradictions, and sometime they're annoying, but there are some that she loves: like the way he seems so cynical and jaded and _hope is for losers_, but his whole life right now revolves around finding a way to rescue the Harvest Goddess.

#18 – Balloon

"You're such a _child_," he grumbles, fighting back a smile, as she hurries back from the balloon stall at the big-city carnival she's dragged him to, and presents him proudly with a bright red balloon to match hers.

#19 – Balcony

"Well, _I_ think it would be _pretty_," she pouts when he remarks scornfully that putting a balcony on a farmhouse is a stupid idea.

#20 – Bane

He's already better with animals than she is, and most vegetables, so none of the villagers can quite understand why it bothers Jamie so much that Siobhan's strawberries are always redder and sweeter than his.

#21 – Quiet

It wasn't the best day to pick on her anyhow, so when he tells her flatly that she talks too much, she snaps back that he should just go find a _quiet_ girl then, like Maria or Gina or Dia, and storms away, leaving him staring after her in annoyed bewilderment.

#22 – Quirks

She doesn't know if she'd really call it a _quirk_ when Jamie ignores his special young lady in the hopes that she'll go away, but Siobhan looks so blissfully happy that Gina just smiles encouragingly and asks to hear more.

#23 – Question

With all the time he spent stammering and blushing and looking away, she expected him to _propose_; so when he finally spits it out, invites her to the Starry Night Festival, she's less than strictly elated.

#24 – Quarrel

She's always heard that _fighting makes you closer_, and she thinks that if that's true, she and Jamie ought to be one entity by now.

#25 – Quitting

Sometimes, when he thinks about how she's done more to help the Goddess than he has, he feels like giving up altogether; then she'll give him that _smile_, and he'll feel his ambition returning.

#26 – Jump

When she comes to the door, her cheeks are bright red with exertion and her eyes sparkling with laughter, and when he asks in bewilderment what the heck she was doing, she confesses sheepishly that her brand-new king size bed was delivered today, and she was trying out the bounce.

#27 – Jester

"No way in Hell," he said flatly when she pulled his costume for Eve's costume party out of the bag: a purple suit, green vest, green wig, and a lot of face paint, to match with her red and black leotard, pointy shoes, and _funny clown-hat thing_.

#28 – Jousting

"So, basically, it's like playing Chicken, but with horses and spears," Siobhan said thoughtfully when Gina and Dia finished explaining the principles of jousting, and Jamie, seeing that strange sparkle in her eye, broke in with a hurried "No, we're not trying it."

#29 – Jewel

"You have a lot to learn about women, don't you?" Eve giggles when Jamie demands, annoyed, why he would bother giving Siobhan jewelry when she never wears it.

#30 – Just

She probably shouldn't have stayed over at Jamie's so long, laughing and chatting and teasing under the title of _helping him redecorate_, because she just barely made it home in time to lock the barn and the coop before the first hurricane of summer hit.

#31 – Smirk

"It's not funny," she snarls when she looks up to find him watching her with a smirk, as a precariously stacked basket of oranges go toppling out and roll across the dusty ground, one by one.

#32 – Sorrow

He's the nicest he's ever been to her, when she receives word that Dad's fishing boat got lost in a terrible storm and never came back, and as she curls up in his lap, too wracked with misery even to cry and relieve the ache in her throat, she thinks away at the back of her mind that it's too bad she can't even _enjoy_ it.

#33 – Stupidity

"Yeah, but when am I not?" she mutters, tears finally coming, when he tells her she's being stupid because she's followed him the whole way to the pier, begging him not to go out to the island today because it's supposed to rain later.

#34 – Serenade

When she shows up at his doorstep at one in the morning, exhausted and miserable and unable to sleep, he marches her back home without a word and puts her to bed with a cup of chamomile tea, then shocks both of them by singing her a lullaby and staying with her until they're both sound asleep.

#35 – Sarcasm

"Well, yeah, but he's a _cute_ sarcastic little wombat," Siobhan points out, very seriously, when Gwen asks her laughingly what the heck she sees in him.

#36 – Sordid

Jamie's in despair right now, because they forgot to close the curtains and someone could have seen the _whole thing_, but Siobhan just laughs, because she thinks that there are more scandalous things happening all around town – the thing with Alex and Gina and the supply closet, for example – than one shy, awkward little kiss.

#37 – Soliloquy

Jamie likes to compare them to Ann and Blue – Siobhan talks and talks, and he listens when he can follow and ignores her when he can't – but from the way she fell immediately silent and spent the rest of the day pouting, she doesn't agree.

#38 – Sojourn

After the third time she spent two days being antsy and lonely until he came back from his trips to town for supplies, the obvious solution finally dawned on her, and now he's staring, bewildered, as she beams at him from the passenger seat of Hank's truck, borrowed for the excursion.

#39 – Share

Since they were already doing everything else together, it only _made sense_ that rescuing the Harvest Goddess became _their_ quest; and maybe there's a reason that children are taught from a young age to share, because only a few weeks later, the beautiful deity was returned to them and to the Sprites and to the village and they ate cookies all night to celebrate.

#40 – Solitary

But sharing everything doesn't mean that he doesn't still have times when he just _needs_ to be alone, whether or not she shuffles dejectedly back home, peeking back over her shoulder at him with big, sad eyes.

#41 – Nowhere

Which usually leads, eventually, leads to him half-slinking and half-storming over to Siobhan's little plot of land to apologize, because as long as he keeps imagining her alone and despondent, he's not going to get anywhere on his chores anyway.

#42 – Neutral

Gina and Dia have quickly learned not to take _anyone's_ side when Siobhan is fighting with Jamie, because she might get angry when they tell her Jamie is in the right and she's being silly, but she gets even angrier when they agree with her that Jamie is in the wrong.

#43 – Nuance

"Geez, Jamie, could you being so subtle and just _tell_ me what's bothering you instead of _hinting_?" Siobhan teases when Jamie's lengthy rant finally comes to an end.

#44 – Near

"We live two minutes from each other," Jamie scoffs when Siobhan suggests timidly that it would be really nice to live together, so they wouldn't feel so far away all the time.

#45 – Natural

He doesn't know when it started feeling so _natural_ to catch her and kiss her good-morning when she came pelting down the road and over his fence at him – or when the very fact that it felt natural stopped scaring him.

#46 – Horizon

She was too afraid of being scornfully refused last year, so this is the first year they've gone to the Moon Festival together; and the view is beautiful, up at the top of the mountain, but the most beautiful part of the evening is when he shrugs out of his coat and wraps it around both of them, and she gets to cuddle up a little bit.

#47 – Valiant

Truth be told, she's not crazy about heights, but when Theodore explains the Blue Feather ritual, she races off to the base of the mountain without a thought; and by the time she's halfway up, her enthusiasm has worn off, but she keeps going, because Jamie's worth a lot more than that.

#48 – Virtuous

"I guess the guy's really supposed to do this," he mutters, feeling terrible at the scrapes all over her arms and knees, even through his elation at the feather she's presenting to him and the hope sparkling in her eyes, because he doesn't like that she went through that kind of danger for him; "Sorry."

#49 – Victory

And now, a year later, they're still competing, even though they're working on the same ranch miles away from Flowerbud Village, and on those rare days that she can manage to milk a cow faster than him, she becomes quite insufferably smug for the rest of the day.

#50 – Defeat

...Even though she knows she's going to pay for it tomorrow when he wins again and spends the rest of the day giving her those looks that somehow gloat more effectively than if he did it out loud.

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End Notes: Whee, that was waaaaaaaaay more fun than I expected! Even though I suspect that it kind of petered out towards the end, when I started running out of ideas. XD


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